The U.S. Senate yesterday approved the Bush administration’s full request for research into new types of nuclear weapons, rejecting a Democratic effort to eliminate funding for those and other nuclear weapon activities (see GSN, Sept. 16).

The Senate voted 53-41 to reject an amendment offered by Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) that would have eliminated $21 million requested by the Bush administration to explore earth-penetrating and low-yield nuclear weapons.  Their amendment would also have delayed site selection for a new plutonium “pit” production facility and ended an effort to reduce the time needed to prepare for resuming nuclear testing.

The Senate did approve, however, a measure offered by Senator Jack Reed (D-R.I.) to limit the funding to research activities only, thereby requiring the administration to request additional approval if it wishes to enter a development phase.

After killing the Feinstein-Kennedy amendment and approving the Reed measure, the Senate voted 92-0 to pass the $27.3 billion fiscal 2004 energy and water appropriations bill, setting up a House-Senate negotiation to resolve differences between their versions of the bill (Dewar/Pincus, Washington Post, Sept. 17).

Feinstein and Kennedy said they would continue their effort to cut the funding during the House-Senate conference (Carl Hulse, New York Times, Sept. 17).

While the Senate approved the full administration request — specifically $15 million for the earth-penetrating weapon, $6 million for the low-yield weapon, $22.8 million for the plutonium facility and $24 million for nuclear test readiness — the U.S. House of Representatives slashed those numbers earlier this year.  It reduced funding for the earth-penetrator and the plutonium plant to $5 million and $10 million, respectively, and eliminated funds for the low-yield weapon and the test site (George Lobsenz, Energy Daily, Sept. 17).

The differing positions suggest that the administration will receive at least some the funding it is seeking, according to the Washington Post.

Senate debate prior to yesterday’s vote focused on whether the administration plans were a step toward building and deploying new nuclear weapons, a move that Democrats argued would promote nuclear proliferation. 

“The last thing the world needs is to have the United States start playing Lone Range with nuclear weapons,” Kennedy said in a news conference yesterday.  “How can we demand that North Korea and Iran abandon their nuclear weapons programs while we develop a new generation of those weapons ourselves?” he added (Dewar/Pincus, Washington Post).

Republicans countered that the bill would only fund research to prepare the United States for future contingencies.

“There’s nothing in this bill that produces a single new nuclear weapon,” said Senator Pete Domenici (R-N.M.).

Feinstein, however, said the money would move the United States in that direction.

“This is the beginning,” she said.  “This money will go to field a new generation of nuclear weapons.  We should not do this,” she added (Nick Anderson, Los Angeles Times, Sept. 17).

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